Answers provided by Alisa Flemming, the Croydon Council cabinet member responsible for schools, education and children’s services, are “confusing, euphemistic, unclear, vague”, and she hides behind “a fearful cloak of vocabulary”.

That’s not a description from anyone who has had to endure months of confusing, euphemistic, unclear and vague answers from Flemming at Croydon Town Hall meetings, where the Labour councillor has struggled to deal with the depths of the disaster within the council’s children’s services for which she has responsibility.

Flemming was a down-the-line interviewee on Feltz’s programme on Friday, being given an opportunity to respond to the latest claims about the failings of Croydon’s children’s services made by Tim Pollard, the leader of Croydon’s Conservative opposition.

By the end of the interview, Flemming was reduced to completely misrepresenting the conclusions of a government commissioner’s report into the short-comings of children’s services.

You can hear the interview in its full 14-minutes cringe-making glory here:

It reaches such a nadir that Feltz feels she can take no more from the obfuscating Flemming.

“I’ve got to say, Councillor Flemming, if you play this back and listen to what you’ve just said, I think it would be impossible for you not to find almost every word that you’ve used in some respect confusing, euphemistic, unclear, vague…

“I mean you’re really not saying anything at all.

“You’re couching everything in such a fearful cloak of vocabulary that it’s impossible to understand what you’re trying to say.”

On Friday morning, on live radio, under the barrage of questions from Feltz, Flemming had been rendered silent.

The wireless abhors dead air, so Feltz filled the vacuum left by Flemming.

“It really is hard to work out what you’re getting at. Because you keep saying , ‘In this situation…’, but you never say what the situation is,” Feltz said.

“The situation was that Ofsted found that the children of Croydon for whom you were responsible were being failed, let down and even worse, were unsafe. That this was a parlous state of affairs. It wasn’t just a state you found yourself in.”

By this point, Flemming appeared to have picked herself up off the floor and got herself together enough to provide a response.

Flemming said, “The issue that I’m having, is that there is no disagreement and at the time of the Ofsted inspection and indeed afterwards, apologies were offered for the level of service that children in Croydon were receiving.

“There has never been any suggestion from our side that the service was where it needed to be. Indeed, what we have said, time and time again, is that we were aware, hence an improvement board had been set up prior to Ofsted’s errr…”

Feltz comes in to point out the obvious: if the service needed an improvement board, then Flemming and the council must have been aware before the Ofsted visit that children’s services required improving.

Eleanor Brazil: her report states that Croydon children’s services cannot cope on their own

The presenter then put to Flemming the question which keeps recurring, and which Flemming and her boss, council leader Tony Newman, have refused to answer.

Feltz said, “Amid all this obfuscation, you’re still there… Some people are wondering why you and Councillor Newman should remain in your positions.”

Flemming responded, but without directly answering the question. “The important thing is for us to fix that situation. We have already put in £10million-worth of gross spend for the next year to continue with that work…”

By now, Feltz is getting close to the end of the time allocated for this item. Perhaps there was a producer whispering instructions into her head set, something about going to traffic and weather in 30 seconds.

As a result, Feltz missed Flemming making a big, fat lie.

Flemming said, “And the commissioner’s report has indicated that she believes we have the capacity to improve the service.”

There’s two possible constructions that can be put on this statement from the £43,000 per year cabinet member.

Either Flemming really does not understand what was contained in the December report from the government-imposed commissioner, Eleanor Brazil. Or, on live radio to the whole of London, Flemming was deliberately lying.

“At this time,” Brazil wrote, “I believe the council should retain responsibility for managing children services and should be given time to drive the improvements forward. However, I do not consider that they have the necessary capacity and expertise within the service, to undertake this effectively and quickly without support.”

We’ve added the italics for emphasis.

Perhaps Tony Newman can read that bit to Alisa Flemming and explain to her what “I do not consider that they have the necessary capacity and expertise” means. When he does so, he might also explain to Flemming why there’s the need for a team of social workers imported from Camden scurrying around Croydon’s council offices, keeping a check on what is going on, as Brazil recommended.

Or perhaps Vanessa Feltz can invite Alisa Flemming back on to BBC Radio London to explain why she lied, live on air.

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About insidecroydon

News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London.
Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com

It must be a failure of the ruling Party and in particular the Leader and appropriate Cabinet Member if another Council is nominated to provide staff to oversee what is happening. It’s no good saying you didn’t know what was or wasn’t happening – that remains the managers/Politicians responsibility. That is what you are elected/paid for.

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News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London.
Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com